So I've been in aviation for about 10 years now. Flying gliders and working as a flight instructor...naturally I'm also interested in skydiving.

Back on 7/7/7 I did my first S/L job and that was purely awesome. Than a year ago I did tandem and ...let's I'm more of a do it yourself guy. Now, I'm thinking of getting into skydiving however...with my other aviation hobbies plus bunch of other stuff, I don't think I will be able to jump more than once every few weeks. How many jumps do you think it takes to stay current (read: safe). As far as skydiving goes, I'm more interested in hops and pops, high openings and canopy rides, jumping with conservative canopies without downsizing etc...

How many jumps you make is not as important as what type of jumps you make.

Let's use flying as an example. There's a big difference between a sight-seeing flight in a 172 on a calm sunny afternoon, and a night-IFR (actual) cross country in a Malibu. If you're a low time pilot who only flies a few hours a month, the hop in the 172 would be 'safe', and the trip in the Malibu would be pretty bad idea.

Skydiving is the same way. People with no jumps can make a 'safe' skydive, but they need all day to train, special gear to jump, and several instructors to help them be 'safe'.

The flip side to that is a current, experienced jumper who just needs a slot in the plane, and can take care of everything else on their own.

So the trick for every jumper is to figure out where they stand in between those two extremes, and proceeding accordingly.

The catch is the same as you see in flying. When a guy builds up 100 or 200 hours, and has been flying for several years, they begin to feel 'entitled' to conduct themselves like an 'experienced' aviator. You and I know that 200 hours isn't all that much, and that just because you have been flying for 5 or 10 years doesn't mean that you have skill or experience, but those things are easy to see from the outside. To that pilot, they feel like an 'old timer', and want to act like one too.

We see the same thing in jumping. You jump as little or as much as you want, and if you can accurately guauge your skills and abilities, and tailor your jumps to suit, then you'll be fine.

At the level that I am at today, if I jump less than 2 times every 3 weeks, I feel like I am not jumping enough to be "current", in the way you asked the question.

I jumped last Saturday after about a 5 week dry spell within only 1 jump during those 5 weeks. Weather was what kept me on the ground during that peroid, so it was not my choice. My first couple of jumps last Saturday showed I was out of practice in my freefall skills. Not bad, just a bit rough.

100 times a month is what I prefer. Sadly I rarely am at that level of currency. As a bare minimum I would say 50 times a year to be safe and 100 times a year to progress. When you say once every few weeks do you mean a 2 hour trip to the drop zone to make one jump, pack up and get back to your busy life, or do you mean you can come out that often and do 3 or 4 jumps, hang out a bit, make some friends, hear some stories etc.? These 2 scenarios will yield very different results.

When I take a month off skateboarding, and go back to it, I am usually terrible for the first 30 minutes or so till I'm warmed up. Now with skydiving, you're only getting 1 minute after that wait...so there is really no progress being made. I try to do at least 2 a week. And never just 1 on any single day.

Everyone's opinion will differ. I felt I had no problem when I did 10-20 jumps a year for 5 years, as a junior jumper. BUT, I already had about 150 jumps in a couple years before being away from the sport so much. I felt I was past the initial hump, that time where one really wants to be active, in order to progress enough to learn the basics about safety.

If one isn't around the DZ much, one has to accept a lower level of involvement, as you won't make the personal connections as much, and it will be harder to get onto dives you want to be on. But that may be OK, especially if you are trying to keep your jumps to those that really are appropriate to your skill level. I certainly did a lot of solo freefly practice, high hop and pops, and similar, among my jumps when I wasn't jumping much.

Aviation background won't help with everything in skydiving, but it can help in some areas (weather, flying the pattern) and can provide a good background in decision making, evaluating risks, and having the mindset of planning for abnormal events.

I'd say that if you get serious about skydiving, at least try to make it your focus (for your recreational time) for one season, get as many quality jumps as you can, and really get your head into the game.

The demands for staying " current " is a joke. Skydiving is like riding a bike, once you've done it repeatedly from 12,500 ft or so, you don't forget how.

Its a way the DZ owners can take your currency and put it in their pockets.

Is this a serious post?

If the "riding the bike" poster is serious, he clearly has not seen the footage that is somewhere on this site of an experienced but uncurrent jumper going totally out of control (while being given the thumbs up sign by the alleged instructor) and then cartwheeling uncontrollably until the aad fired. Perhaps posted a couple of years ago.

I can't remember whether the topic of the discussion was about the poor instructor or the fact that people with a whole load of jumps absolutely can forget how to fall in a stable position.

Perhaps someone with a better memory than me can find this video - it may be relevant to this thread.

I would agree with this IF the jumper has years of experience and lots of jumps in those years. Someone who just gets their A license, goes to the dz once a month only does 2 jumps is not staying current enough to get any better or stay safe. I've been on too many zoo dives with this type of jumper and just refuse to jump with them anymore.